Return of the Nexus? | Tech Talk Today 13

Posted on: June 23, 2014

The rumors of the death of the Nexus line may be exaggerated, we look at some leaked specs of a new 9 inch Nexus tablet. Plus Heartbleed goes on, Linux app updates, Bitcoin’s weekend boost and more!

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— Headlines —

This Is Volantis, HTC’s Nine-Inch Nexus Tablet

According to our information, the tablet is internally referred to as the Nexus 9, though this name could change before it comes to market. Here’s what we’ve heard so far in the specs department:

8.9″ Display at 2048×1440 (281ppi)
NVIDIA Logan 64-bit processor (Tegra K1)
2GB RAM
16/32GB internal storage
8MP OIS main camera, 3MP front facing camera
Aluminum zero-gap construction
Stereo front-facing speakers
8.91″x5.98″x0.31″ body (that’s 22.63×15.19×0.79cm)
418g (or 427g with LTE) (that’s 14.74/15.1 ounces)

Errata Security: 300k vulnerable to Heartbleed two months later

When the Heartbleed vulnerability was announced, we found 600k systems vulnerable. A month later, we found that half had been patched, and only 300k were vulnerable. Last night, now slightly over two months after Heartbleed, we scanned again, and found 300k (309,197) still vulnerable. This is done by simply scanning on port 443, I haven’t check other ports.

This indicates people have stopped even trying to patch.

Linux Note-taking App ‘Springseed’ 2.0 Refreshes

The open-source app is currently only available on Linux, offering users a minimalistic UI for writing, storing and categorising notes, thoughts, code snippets, and more. Notes can be synced between computers using the built-in Dropbox sync, though this isn’t required to use the app.

Version 2.0, the first stable update since February, refreshed the application’s UI with a darker, angular new look. The light colour scheme and custom window frames of version 1.1 have been replaced by a dark sidebar with large typography, native window borders and a boxier, flatter design with colourful accents in the edit window and high contrast icons.

Opera is back on Linux

As the Opera team said in a Monday blog post:

Many of us at Opera use Linux as our primary platform. It’s great to be able to try out the newest developments of Opera on Linux once again. Adding Linux to our browser line fulfils an important part of Opera’s vision to shape an open, connected world. We want everyone to have fast and safe access to the web. Adding Linux opens up that possibility to more machines running the open-source operating system.

Bitcoin is moving from its Deceptive phase to a very Disruptive phase.

A Greek-American engineer, physician, and entrepreneur best known for being the founder and chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, the co-founder and chairman of Singularity University and the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think. He is also the former CEO and co-founder of the Zero-Gravity Corporation, the co-founder and vice chairman of Space Adventures Ltd., the founder and chairman of the Rocket Racing League, the co-founder of the International Space University, the co-founder of Planetary Resources, founder of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, and vice-chairman & co-founder of Human Longevity, Inc.

Bitcoin is moving from its Deceptive phase to a very Disruptive phase. This Blog is going to explain why, and what you may want to do.

I’ve been tracking Bitcoin since its inception, and my confidence has grown to the point where I’m now trading in a portion of my gold holdings for bitcoin, buying it and accepting bitcoin for the Abundance 360 CEO Summit.

If you’ve followed my work, or participated in my Abundance 360 Summit, you understand that I teach and track exponential technologies using my “6 D’s” approach, looking for “user interface moments.”

Bitcoin is following the 6Ds and is on a path to go from deceptive to disruptive over the next 1 – 3 years.

Why Bitcoin is following the 6 D’s

1. DIGITIZED: Bitcoin is digitized money — it is a global, purely digital currency. Every bitcoin is traded, earned, sold, exchanged and bought in cyberspace. For this reason, it is living on Moore’s law and hopping on the exponential curve.

2. DECEPTIVE: Bitcoin software was released to the public in 2009 and for the first few years has been growing in its deceptive phase. Few heard about it, few used it and accepted it. In addition, the currency has been hard to use; therefore, it hasn’t had its “User Interface Moment” (the key transition from deceptive to disruptive). More soon.

3. DISRUPTIVE: As described below by my friend Barry Silbert (founder of Second Market), Bitcoin is about to enter its disruptive phase where its rate of acceptance and use will explode, as will its value. See below.

4. DEMATERIALIZING: Bitcoin is eliminating or dematerializing the use of physical money (bills and coins), even credit cards. But more than that, it is also dematerializing (read: eliminating) the need for central banks, lawyers and currency exchanges.

5. DEMONETIZING: Bitcoin eliminates middlemen (banks, lawyers, exchanges) and demonetizes the cost of transactions. No fees. It makes it cheaper to use, spread and share money.

6. DEMOCRATIZING: Bitcoin makes access to capital available to everyone, where there are no banks, no ATMs and no credit card suppliers. Ultimately, as we move (over the next 6 years) to a world of 7 billion digitally connected humans, Bitcoin makes currency available to anyone with a connection to the internet.

Bitcoin’s Evolution – Why it will be Disruptive Soon

My friend Barry Silbert (founder of Second Market) recently spoke as my guest at Singularity University’s Exponential Finance conference about Bitcoin. He provided an excellent overview of its near-term trajectory, summarized below. His input has also put me on the lookout for the “User Interface Moment” – that moment in time when an entrepreneur designs a piece of interface software (think Marc Andreessen and Mosaic) that makes it so easy to use bitcoin.

I’ll be reporting on those user interfaces, investing in those startups and helping to promote them.

Okay, now back to Barry Silbert’s insights. Barry outlined five phases for this digital currency that help explain where it’s been and where it’s going.

Phase 1: The period 2009 to 2011 was the early ‘experimentation phase’ for bitcoin (i.e. deceptive). Here the software is released to public and most technologists and hackers started playing with the code. During this phase, there was no apparent value to currency yet; mining bitcoin was easy and could be done by a single person on a MacBook or PC.

Phase 2: 2011 marked the beginning of the ‘early adopter’ phase (still deceptive). There was a lot of early hype and press around Silk Road (where you could buy drugs). The value went from less than $1 to over $30, then crashed. This spurs the first generation of bitcoin companies to build basic infrastructure: wallets, merchant processors, mining operations, exchanges, etc. – i.e. the early user interfaces.

Phase 3: 2012 thru mid-2014 marked the beginning of the ‘Venture Capital Phase.’ Folks like Marc Andreessen, Google Ventures, Benchmark and others have begun investing in Generation 2 Bitcoin companies. We are right in the middle of Phase 3 right now. Thousands of bitcoin companies are getting funding. Many of these are trying to create the “User-Interface Moment.”

Phase 4: Fall 2014 thru 2015 will like see the start of the Wall Street Phase. Here we will begin to see institutional money acknowledging digital currencies as an asset class, and they will begin trading it, investing it and creating products around it. This marks the start of the disruptive phase.

Phase 5: Finally will come the ‘Mass Global Consumer Adoption’ phase — this is where bitcoin becomes a major player in the global economy. When consumers feel it is easy, safe and secure to use bitcoin. It won’t be possible until after the “User Interface Moment” materializes, but I believe, as does Barry, that this is only 1-2 years out.

XPRIZE Foundation Founder Peter Diamandis: Bitcoin Moving to a Very Disruptive Phase